Photo: September 2002 – East Cosham House, East boundary, looking south down East Cosham Road with Havant Road in the background.

Location and site

In 2002, a survey was carried out of three adjoining East Cosham villas with frontages on the north of Havant Road, formerly the Portsmouth and Chichester Turnpike. The site is on the south of Portsdown Hill and slopes N/S. Looking south between the houses in Southdown Road gives an impression of the original views. They were: West to East – Cosham House, 69 Havant Road; Cosham Lodge, also known as The Lodge, demolished, frontage covered Nos. 75-83 Havant Road; East Cosham House, 91 Havant Road, also known as East Cosham Lodge.

Historic development

The Victoria County History notes that East Cosham ‘consists chiefly of residential houses surrounded by pleasant gardens’.
Cosham House and Cosham Lodge were built between 1815 and 1840; there was a house on the site of East Cosham House by the publication of the first one inch OS map in 1810. All three were gentry villas with walled and unwalled kitchen gardens and stabling on the north of Havant Road. The owners had family ties with East Court, opposite, and East Cosham Cottage West. In the 1840s three of the five large houses in East Cosham (the fifth is The Goodwyns, now Mulberry Park Nursery (HRO 47A12/A9/2), were owned by Royal Navy Officers.
The grounds of Cosham House and East Cosahm House included fields on the south side of Havant Road. Cosham Lodge, though well appointed, had only an acre or so surrounding the house. Cosham House lost land north, west and east between 1932 and 1938. It retained a deep frontage to Havant Road and has suffered no further loss. Cosham Lodge, the smallest estate, remained unchanged until 1932 but was demolished by 1938. East Cosham House lost the west half of its grounds to the same housing development that claimed Cosham Lodge. It lost a little more land at its north tip by 1965 but retained the walled garden. By 1996 it had lost all but its shallow frontage and an outbuilding at the rear. The loss possibly happened in 1972 when adjoining plots were advertised for sale.
The former grounds of all three houses are intersected with residential roads.HGT Research: September 2002

References

Hampshire Gardens Trust (HRO)
21M65/F7/256/1-2) Tithe maps and awards for Widley and Wymering
21M65/F270/1-2)
Q23/2/30/1-2 Cosham Enclosure award and map
47A12/A9/1 Cosham Villas – this research
47A12/A9/2 Mulberry Park Children’s Nursery (The Goodwyns)Other sources
Bryant, Brenda, c1981, History and Memories of Cosham, unpublished manuscript, Local and Naval Studies, Portsmouth central Library
Brown, R & Greer W, 1982, Fairdays and Tramways: The Story of Cosham, booklet from the Down Memory Lane series on Old Hampshire, pub. Milestone Publications Ltd.
Everitt, A T, Miscellaneous Collections Vol II, bound manuscript at Local and Naval Studies, Portsmouth Central Library
Kinchenton E, and Nicholls E. Cosham Park and its House:some notes on its History unpublished paper held at Havant Museum
Lloyd, David W. 1974, The Buildings of Portsmouth and its Environs, pub. City of Portsmouth
Rayfield, Anida S, 1981 Discovering Cosham published by Portsmouth Further Education Centre 1981
Rogers, Peter – personal notes.
Victoria County History of Hampshire, Series 3. 1908.